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Rachel Levine: “Climate change is having a disproportionate effect on the physical and mental health of black communities

On the day celebrating the American colonies’ separation from Great Britain, Hawaii is relatively quiet in contrast to the continental United States, where fireworks light up neighborhoods across the country. In Hawaii, July 4 is not a joyous occasion for some residents. This is because July 4 is also the day a group of businessmen self-declared the Islands to be the Republic of Hawaii in 1894, before imprisoning Queen Liliuokalani. Later, July 4, 1960, was chosen as the day the 50th star was added to the U.S. flag.

The Supreme Court ruled today that six states cannot, for now, try to limit emissions of greenhouse gases under federal common law. The court ruled 8-0 -- Justice Sonia Sotomayor was recused -- that the Clean Air Act and the Obama administration's efforts to regulate emissions had displaced the states' federal common law argument. But the court split, 4-4, on the potentially key issue of whether federal courts even had jurisdiction to hear the claims. The split means the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' finding that it did have jurisdiction stands, although that conclusion would not apply to other...

RATEPAYERS could be stung up to $45,000 to install curtains at a public pool so Muslim women can have privacy during a female-only exercise classes. The City of Monash has won an exemption from equal opportunity laws to run the sessions outside normal opening hours. The council says the privacy screen is needed for "cultural reasons". It follows moves by other councils to introduce women-only sessions for the Muslim community, such as Greater Dandenong asking a tribunal to approve a ban on uncovered shoulders and thighs for those attending a family event at a pool. Special exercise classes for women...

Members of the Texas Apostolic Prayer Network (TXAPAN) kneel before Comanche Nation chairman Michael Burgess and two other Comanches, and “apologize” for a “battle” at Palo Duro Canyon in 1874. This story was told on the front page of the Comanche Nation News, June edition, 2010. The dramatic prayer incident took place this past April 23 and 24. To my knowledge, this event was not advertised among the Comanche people, nor was there any general invitation given. The June edition in the Comanche paper is the first I knew of it. I know I’m not the only Comanche that was...

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) -- The Hamas government said Thursday it will not let newly approved food items into the Gaza Strip as long as Israel maintains its blockade of the territory. Israel slightly eased the much-criticized blockade on Wednesday by permitting snacks, spices and some other previously banned food items into Gaza. The order was symbolic at best, leaving a ban in place on desperately needed construction and industrial materials.

The business of selling food that is halal, or acceptable to Muslims, is set to grow rapidly in Europe in coming years as more supermarket chains target the sector, a Nestle executive said on Tuesday. Frits van Dijk, executive vice president at the world's biggest food group, told Reuters on the sidelines of the World Halal Forum in The Hague he expected the halal food business in Europe to grow by 20 to 25 percent within the next decade. " We are starting to see that these products are not just in specialty shops but are also starting to get...

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica -- Central American leaders will push the U.S. to slow a flood of deportations when Vice President Joe Biden meets with them Monday, promising a "new day for relations" with a region that has felt ignored...Costa Rica is the second stop in Biden's Latin American tour...Central American leaders agreed Wednesday to push the U.S. to include Guatemalans in a temporary visa program that is already in place for Salvadorans, Hondurans and Nicaraguans. They also want the U.S. to soften a deportation policy that sent a record 80,000 people back to the region in 2008 alone. The...

As time goes on more and more Islamic leaders are not hiding their agenda and are calling for Islamic law. Let us examine three cases of this. The first taking place in the US. He is a Phoenix Imam who is calling for Muslims not to follow the laws of the US government, but instead follow those of Sharia or Islamic law . Here is what Omar Shahin, president of the North American Imams Foundation has said.

Muslims in the Scottish district of Tayside are outraged by the appearance of a wide-eyed, 6-week-old puppy on postcards distributed by the local police force, according to the Daily Mail. Postcards showing police dog-in-training Rebel, a German shepherd born in early December, are causing a furor among the region’s Muslims who believe dogs are "ritually unclean," the Daily Mail reports. The cute cards were meant to notify locals of a new telephone number for non-emergency phone calls but instead have become a flashpoint for a clash of cultures. Shopkeepers are refusing to display the offending ad and a Dundee city...

WASHINGTON — Public opinion in Mexico has turned sharply against the United States over the past decade, and many in America's southern neighbor now hold strongly negative views of President Bush and the candidates vying to replace him, a public opinion survey released Thursday revealed. A Pew Global Attitudes Survey of citizens in Mexico and 23 other countries found that 47 percent of Mexicans have a positive view of the United States, down from 68 percent a decade ago. Nearly half of that decline — 9 percentage points — came since last year, when an anti-immigrant backlash in America inflamed...

Muslim scientists and clerics have called for the adoption of Mecca time to replace GMT, arguing that the Saudi city is the true centre of the Earth. ...SNIP... The meeting also reviewed what has been described as a Mecca watch, the brainchild of a French Muslim.br>

FR rules-link only http://www.thetowntalk.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080414/NEWS01/804140302/1002

Drug cartel hit men have killed a popular Mexican singer, along with his manager and assistant, near the U.S. border, authorities said Wednesday. Jesus Rey David Alfaro, known as the Little Rooster, is one of at least six singers of narcocorrido ballads about drug trafficking who have been slain since Mexico's drug war flared in 2006. "We believe Alfaro had links to the Arellano Felix cartel," said an official with the Baja California attorney general's office, who declined to be named. Alfaro's body was found last week covered with a blanket on the edge of the city, with rope marks...

An official from Sudan says that Westerners going to live in Sudan should have to pass an exam on the local culture ... in other words, be indoctrinated on the Islamic ways of life. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7127128.stm Khalid al Mubarak works at London's Sudan embassy. He says that courses were mandatory in the colonial era and they "worked very well." He says a two-week course could help avoid accidental insults ... like naming a teddy bear after the prophet Muhammad. The courses would be run through government colleges and "should consist of educating somebody of what is acceptable and what is not...

"George Mason University: non-Muslim students asked to observe Muslim rules in common prayer area And that's just one of the accommodations being implemented in schools around the country..."

UNITED NATIONS - Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon asked New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Wednesday whether some of the city's police officers could be deployed with U.N. peacekeeping missions. Recruiting police for the U.N.'s 16 peacekeeping missions around the globe has been historically challenging. "New York City has one of the most diversified police forces around and I think the secretary-general would like to explore possibilities," U.N. deputy spokeswoman Marie Okabe said before the meeting. "Getting police to join peacekeeping operations is one of the high priorities for the U.N." Bloomberg left the meeting without speaking to reporters. Stu Loeser, the...

The War on Terror has radicalised Muslims around the world to unprecedented levels of anti-American feeling, according to the largest survey of Muslims ever to be conducted. Seven per cent believe that the events of 9/11 were “completely justified”. In Saudi Arabia, 79 per cent had an “unfavourable view” of the US. Gallup’s Centre for Muslim Studies in New York carried out surveys of 10,000 Muslims in ten predominantly Muslim countries. One finding was that the wealthier and better-educated the Muslim was, the more likely he was to be radicalised. The surveys were carried out in 2005 and 2006. Along...

The imam of the Taipei Grand Mosque complained to Taiwan's foreign minister for sending him a greeting card for the Chinese New Year showing four pigs, a newspaper said on Saturday. After receiving the New Year card, Imam Ma Hsiao-chi pointed out to the Foreign Ministry that the card was offensive to Muslims, the Liberty Times reported. Muslims do not eat pork and regard pigs as unclean animals. But the ministry defended Foreign Minister Huang Chih-fang's sending out the greeting cards, which were printed because 2007 is the Year of Pig according to the Chinese lunar calendar. "Sending New Year...

MINNEAPOLIS, Sept. 30 (AP) — Hundreds of Muslim cabdrivers at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport may soon be required to put different colored lights atop their vehicles after refusing to take customers they know are carrying alcohol. The proposal, which would allow airport workers to direct travelers to cabs more efficiently, needs approval from the airport’s taxicab advisory committee, and airport officials hope to have the lights ready by year’s end. If the proposal is adopted, cabdrivers without the light who refuse a fare will be sent to the back of the line, which often means a three-hour wait. Some said...